The Incident
by 0011010000110010
Summary: Faster than light travel has been achieved, but the maiden voyage leads to an unexpected place.


**The Incident**

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><p><strong>I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic<strong>

Any resemblance of characters to real people, living or dead, is coincidence.**  
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><p><em>Faster than the Speed of Light<em>

_June 15, 2069_

_ Rather interestingly, one century after the first man on the moon, another space race has ended. Faster than light travel is now a possibility. While the transportation of small objects through space at faster than light speed has been demonstrated many times before, it was not until a few months ago that a team spearheaded by Doctor Dalton Miner working with NASA demonstrated a stable device for allowing spacecraft to fold space itself. _

_ Working overtime, NASA has outfitted one of their newest spaceships, the Blackbird, with the device. Called the Prometheus Engine, it draws energy from quantum fluctuations to manipulate space. Dr. Miner had actually been working on this engine for over twenty years, and had only recently received attention from NASA. Now, however, it is complete, and as a bonus, Dr. Miner gets to be one of the first people to test the engine, along with veteran astronaut Neil Aldrin, and First Lieutenant Jason Johnson. ..._

Dr. Miner looked up from the article. He knew that they only needed him in case something happened to the engine, as he could list every single component and its location, as well as every dark corner in the code for navigation. But he couldn't help but feel out of place amongst a veteran astronaut and a marine. Sure, he had run track back in high school, but that was a long time ago, and he had spent most of his adult life working on the equations for manipulating space. It was probably best not to dwell on the training regimen he had to go through to get here.

Instead, as he looked around his 'temporary accommodations', Dalton recalled the man he had met with to discuss a partnership with NASA. He was wearing a blue suit and carried a briefcase, of all things. Closely trimmed black hair contrasting sharply with his gaunt face, he spoke hesitantly, as if he was not a native speaker of the English language. Interestingly, he had no noticeable accent, but spoke in staggered sentences. Even stranger, Dalton never remembered catching the man's name, but was sure he had seen this man before.

A pen floated past his face, rotating slowly. They were already in space, in geosynchronous orbit above the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The jump was scheduled for 20:17:39 UTC, the exact time Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the moon back in 1969. They were going to perform a small jump, relatively speaking, to a low orbit around Mars. Dalton was going to be among the first humans ever to walk on Mars, something he wasn't quite sure how to feel about. What should he say after the jump, if it was successful? Should he say anything at all, or leave the speech to the actual astronaut?

Slightly more worrying was the dream he had last night, while still acclimating to being in space. The moon, or some similar celestial body hung framed in the cockpit window, with what looked like the Earth peeking out from behind the moon. Red lights started flashing among all the switches on the control panel as a computerized voice grated "COLLISION COURSE. DECELERATE IMMEDIATELY." And then nothing but the sound of tortured metal groaning and shrieking as it folded in around him.

The way Dalton was able to remember the dream so vividly made it seem like it was an actual memory, which was disturbing as that meant the Prometheus Engine might malfunction in some way. The planet behind the moon was very interesting as it looked very similar to the Earth, as it had land, what looked like liquid water, and some cloud cover. What was odd, though, was that the weather systems seemed to be very restricted to certain areas, as if they were controlled somehow. The night side of this planet lacked much of the city lights that he saw on Earth before he went to bed the previous day, in fact, there might have been no lights whatsoever on the dream planet.

Jason stuck his head around the door and said, "are you ready? It's almost time for the jump."

"Yeah. Like I have anything else to do," Dalton replied.

"Don't worry, there'll be plenty of things for you to do in a bit."

"That's what I'm worried about."

With a shrug, Jason withdrew his head from the entrance. How can he be so calm about this? It must be because he doesn't fully understand what the Prometheus Engine does and that if anything were to go wrong, it wouldn't be very pretty.

Dalton hmm'ed to himself. Would it be possible to make a jump to a different universe, if, in fact, the multiverse hypothesis was correct? It'd probably be best if he just dropped the subject now, as the time for the jump was rapidly approaching, and he needed his mind clear to watch for any discrepancies.

With a slight push, Dalton sent himself floating across the room, if one could call a large closet a room. Adjusting his direction by pushing off the walls of the corridor, he eventually found himself in the cockpit, where Neil and Jason were waiting for him. He strapped himself into the seat across from Jason, which was the navigator's seat.

"Five minutes to go," Neil informed Dalton. They don't really need me here, Dalton thought. I wanted to go, as it's the first real test of the Engine, but surely they had someone more capable than me.

"Hey... Dalton, I'm picking up some interference. It's on the same frequency as the navigation link with Earth," Jason said. "It won't mess with your engine, correct?"

"No, the location is already inputted and cannot be changed without a lengthy password." As Dalton said this, he took a closer look at the coordinates. "Are you sure these are the coordinates?"

"Yep. They were sent ten minutes ago," Jason responded.

"That's odd, they don't look like they would be anywhere near Mars. It seems like they would put us back in our same position, but something seems... off," Dalton stated.

"You think the interference is messing with the co-ordinates?"

"I don't think so."

"Only two minutes left till the jump. Everyone strapped in?" Neil asked, as he looked behind at Dalton and Jason. He received confirming nods from both of his crew-mates."Good."

"But that would mean the higher-ups want us somewhere else, in secret as well." Dalton paused to think before continuing. "The first test of the Prometheus Engine, and they want us to go to an unknown place? They must be crazy."

"One minute."

Jason shook his head, although there was a flicker of doubt in his eyes. "No, that man knows exactly what he's doing. There must be something going on that we don't know about."

"That man?" Dalton questioned.

"Yeah, average height, black hair, pale skin, blue suit," Jason replied.

"Interesting. Well, it's too late to do anything now, as we have–how many seconds, Neil?" Dalton said as he turned to face Neil.

"Fifteen. Get ready to grab something; I have no idea how smooth this jump's gonna be."

"Well then, I hope your engine works properly, Dalton, because I have no intention of coming out of the jump with my head on backwards," Jason quipped.

"Very funny."

Neil started counting down the last ten seconds. "Ten... Nine... Eight... Seven... Six... Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Zero."

A sudden feeling of intense pressure, and then a muffled 'thud' that shook the whole ship.

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><p>Celestia sighed. Luna had been acting up again. She was currently resting on her bed, finding it impossible to go to sleep. Firstly, Luna had managed to dye her pink. <em>Pink<em>. And on the night before some toy company showed up to take reference photos for a new line of toys. The company was called Hazbor, or something. Needless to say, it was a very awkward meeting.

There was also something that happened between Luna and Twilight. Something to do with socks. "I hate socks," Celestia mumbled. Trying to extract information about the event from Twilight had yielded only the fact that Luna had shown Twilight her socks. Luna obviously refused to say anything about the event, and insisted that nothing had happened.

There was only one way to stop Luna from escalating these pranks into something more sinister, and that was to banish her to the moon. Again. The plan had been brilliant. Celestia had distracted Luna with the offering of a banana, and then used a cannon to shoot her to the moon. It was probably dangerous, but that had not stopped Princess Celestia before.

Still, she wondered, was that really the best option to take? Maybe she should have asked Luna how she was feeling and if there was anything she could do. Oh well, she thought as she rolled over. I'll think more about it in the morning.

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><p>Luna had been staring at Equestria for half a day. It never got old, siting here, on the moon, staring at the small blue and green ball hanging in the sky.<p>

It only got lonely. Luna sighed, her wings drooping slightly. She had only wanted to cheer everypony up with some harmless pranks, but then it had gotten complicated with Twilight. But never mind all that, she had better things to do than wallow in self-pity. Like categorize rocks. And draw endless pictures of Twilight in the dust.

A flash of light caught the corner of Luna's eye. Perking up, and with a quizzical look, head tilted ever so slightly to the side, she noticed it was moving. It looked like it was reflecting light from the sun, which meant it must be metallic. As it drew closer, she could start making out finer details. It was roughly triangular in shape and the center was a tapered cylinder. This meant it was no mere rock, but some object crafted by intelligent life. As far as Luna knew, the ponies of Equestria had no space program or even a flight program for non-pegasi ponies. This meant extra-equestrial life! Oh, how Luna wished she had her abacus so that she could plot the path of this fascinating craft! But, sadly, Celestia had locked away her magic when banishing her to the moon. Still, perhaps she could use some of the seemingly infinite rocks that lay scattered across the surface as a stand-in for her Abby.

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><p>"Dalton! Where the hell are we?" Jason barked.<p>

"I'm telling you; I don't know! We could be in the next galaxy over or on the other side of the universe!"

"Calm down, we just need to re-establish the navigation link with Earth and we'll be fine," Neil said coolly.

"I've been scanning all frequencies since the jump, but there's nothing but background radiation. There should be something if we were still inside our solar system. It's creeping me out. There's just absolutely nothing! The entanglement comm has no signal either. I don't even want to imagine what that means," Jason said.

"The entanglement comm has no signal?" Dalton said in disbelief. "B-but that should be **impossible**. That would mean that the comm back on Earth was damaged somehow, or ours was, during the jump!"

"I've already run three system diagnostics on it. Nothing each time. It's just become... dis-entangled somehow," Jason said incredulously.

"Hey, guys?" Dalton and Jason turned to face Neil. "You might want to see this..."

The moon, framed by black space, slightly obscuring Earth. Or rather, a planet that looked like Earth. None of the continents matched what each astronaut remembered from geography class, and cloud cover seemed mostly relegated to large forests.

"That can't be good," Jason mumbled.

"More bad news, I'm afraid," Neil said. "The navigation computer has managed to pin-point our location using the position of various stars. We are currently orbiting Earth."

"We're orbiting Earth. That's great." Jason turned to face Dalton. "How long will it take for your engine to be able to make another jump?"

"Not soon enough. The main thrusters aren't starting and our current trajectory intersects with the moon," Dalton said as he flipped several important looking switches, to no avail.

"Looks like we'll have to brace for impact," Neil said quietly. "With any luck, we'll graze the edge of the moon."

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><p>Luna glanced up at the obje—no, <em>spaceship—<em>again. Using her hoof, she moved a couple of the rocks laying in rows in front of her. She frowned at the rocks. "It's going to crash..." Luna muttered. Surely the organisms aboard the ship noticed the impending doom and would alter their trajectory? But no, the ship continued on towards her moon. Maybe they were planing to land on the moon! This thought brought some relief, only for it to be dashed to pieces when Luna calculated the amount of space needed for deceleration for landing safely. Even without knowing how far away the ship was, she knew it was not far enough. A flash of blue flame from the rear of the ship confused her. Were they suicidal? As the ship began to rotate, she understood. The ship, once facing backwards, would use the energy from the blue flames to scrub off forward momentum. It must be some sort of movement magic.

Calculating the rate of deceleration using her stand-in abacus, Luna discovered that the ship would be able to land safely. Just. Abandoning the rocks, Luna started trotting towards what would be the landing site of this 'spaceship'.

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><p>Boom! The whole ship shook once more, although this time it was accompanied by the decaying whine of the thrusters as they shut off.<p>

"Everyone alright?" Neil asked, unbuckling himself and turning around. Two very white but seemingly okay faces stared back at him. "I'll take that as a yes, then."

Turning back around, Neil studied the various warning messages strewn across the display. The hydraulics for the landing gear were shot, and several electrical systems were down. It was possible to ignore the damage to the landing gear, as it was just to the struts for vertical landings, although that loop of the hydraulic system would have to be closed to allow the operation of the horizontal landing gear. As for the electrical systems, it should just be replacing components.

"Dalton, is the Prometheus engine fine?"

"Hold on—yeah, everything's green."

"Good. You'll survey damage from the outside."

"What."

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><p>Luna hid behind an outcropping of rocks near the ship. The landing had been violent, and she was surprised to see only minimal damage to it. The only parts of the ship that seemed damaged were the long struts that held it up. Parts of the struts were collapsed and leaking something. Luna started moving out from behind her hiding spot, only to duck back down as a hatch opened on the ship.<p>

She gasped as a suited figure stepped lightly out of the opening. It wasn't a pony, that was for sure. Its stance was bipedal, and it seemed to have paws and fingers like a dragon's. As far as Luna could tell, this creature was taller then her, maybe even as tall as Celestia! As the creature landed on the surface, it turned around to look at the ship. The creature's suit seemed very form-fitting, in contrast with a bulky backpack and full face helmet.

Leaning closer, Luna accidentally dislodged some rocks, which rolled down the crater made from the impact of the landing and bumped against the creature's feet. It looked down at the rocks, and then at Luna's hiding spot. Luna hoped it wouldn't come investigate, as she didn't know if this alien was friendly or not yet.

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><p>Dalton felt something nudge his foot. Jumping slightly, he looked down to find that it was only some rocks. Tracing their path by the dust they had kicked up, he saw that they had came from an outcropping of rocks on the rim of the crater formed from the crash landing. Just for an instant, he thought he saw a flash of indigo duck down below the rim.<p>

"Neil, I think I saw something," Dalton said into his mic.

"Don't go wandering off Dalton. We don't want to lose you," Neil replied, sounding tinny through the headset.

Turing back towards the ship, Dalton began searching the hull for damage. Why had they made _me_ the one who checked for outside damage? It's like some higher force is directing every move I make to put me in the perfect position for something universe changing to happen. And as soon as Dalton thought that he felt _something_ tap him on the shoulder.

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><p>Luna stared at the alien, fascinated by its movements. Her horn starting to glow with what little power she could still use, Luna prepared to cast a spell that would tell her more about this creature's anatomy. But then, it spoke. Using magic.<p>

"Neil, I think I saw something."

They spoke her language! How strange. Looking around the ship, she could find no trace of the other that was called Neil. Such an interesting name. Luna wondered what it meant.

But then, a response came, "Don't go wandering off Dalton. We don't want to lose you."

That must be 'Neil'. And the one in front of me is 'Dalton'. 'Neil' sounded much calmer than 'Dalton', although that must be because this 'Neil' is inside the ship, and 'Dalton' outside.

What am I still doing up here? Luna asked herself. It doesn't seem like this 'Dalton' could be too much of a threat, even if he was taller than her, as she could see no weapons. He had also sounded nervous when he spoke earlier, as well.

It was decided, then. Luna would go down and introduce herself. Bouncing slightly in the low gravity, she descended the walls of the crater. Getting ever closer to 'Dalton', she began to get cold hooves. He was just so _tall_. And since he could talk through magic, that must mean he could potentially use it to hurt her. She halted, frowning. Maybe introducing herself wasn't such a good idea after all.

She had already come this far, she shouldn't back out now. It was likely that 'Neil' had already spotted her. With renewed determination, Luna resumed her bouncing down the crater face until she was right behind 'Dalton'. She reached up with one hoof, hesitating for just the briefest moment before tapping his... shoulder? She wasn't sure of the correct nomenclature of his anatomy.

'Dalton' whipped around so fast he kept on spinning, almost falling over before catching his balance. Luna fought the urge to giggle at his spastic movements, and instead, horn lighting up once more, used the same magic he had to try and talk to him.

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><p>After the tap on his shoulder, Dalton turned around as fast as he could, but was unable to stop himself from continuing to rotate and felt himself start to fall over. With some cartwheeling of his arms, he managed to not fall over and stop his rotation. Convincing his heart that it was okay to start beating again, he straightened up.<p>

"Hello? Can you hear me?" A delicate female voice said. _Through his headset_. Dalton's heart then decided that a more lengthy vacation was needed, and promptly stopped beating for a second time. Frantically looking around, he noticed that there was a navy blue pony sitting in front of him. Oh, it's just a pony, he thought. With a horn. And wings. That can talk.

"Hey, Neil? Are you seeing this too?"

"Yeah, and heard it as well. You aren't the only one, Dalton."

"Oh, you can hear me? That's great! My name's Luna!" The pony again. How was it able to talk to them over their radio? How was it surviving up here on the moon with no spacesuit?

"Oh. Okay, um, Luna. Is there... is there anything you want?" Dalton spoke hesitantly.

"What are you doing here?"

"We, uh, got lost, and had some thruster problems."

"You mean the cones on the bottom of your ship, right?"

"...Yes"

This was insane. Dalton could see where this was heading. He would end up answering many questions about their spaceship, and then this 'Luna' might ask for a tour.

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><p>An hour or so later, Dalton had finished giving Luna a tour of the ship. He had refused the request at first, but she was very persuasive. She could pull off one hell of a puppy dog face. And so the tour had begun, although he was careful not to reveal too much. Luna came from the planet below, having been banished to the moon by her sister. She came from a society that had no knowledge of heavy industry or war, and Dalton would rather it be kept that way.<p>

It had been hard for Luna to maneuver in such tight spaces, as the ship was not exactly built for species other than humans in mind. She had gotten stuck several times and had needed Dalton to pull her out. She had asked an improbable amount of questions, and was very delighted with all the answers she was getting, even if Dalton had to skirt around a question here and there that proved to be too dangerous to answer. He had asked her some questions as well, which is how he came to know that Luna had been banished to the moon.

What had really set him off was the display of magic Luna had used to repair a broken cup. She had gotten stuck again, and in pulling her out, a cup had been knocked over. With a quick "I can fix that!", her horn had glowed, as well as the cup's fragment, which slowly rose up and reformed. Dalton must have asked Luna around fifty times how exactly had she fixed the cup. Each time it was the same answer: magic. This had infuriated Dalton, until Neil told him that the ship was ready to take off.

"This means I have to leave now, right?" Asked Luna.

"I'm afraid it does," replied Dalton. "It wasn't long enough, was it?"

"Nope."

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><p>Luna sat on a plateau a couple minutes away from the ship, as Dalton had warned her the thrusters would kick up a lot of dust and rocks. She had only known them for a couple of hours, but they had seemed kind enough, after the had gotten over the shock of meeting sentient life on the moon. There was also a third 'human', as they called their race, aboard the ship as well, but he was busy working on repairs, Dalton had told her. Such an interesting race, with none of them capable of magic, or unassisted flight. The way their bodies were shaped also fascinated her, with their flat faces and small manes. No tails, either.<p>

She had learned about many interesting ideas, such as self-propelled carts and trains. Since they had no magic, the humans had evolved incredibly dexterous fingers to interact with tools. And what tools they had! Luna was defiantly going have a workshop built to try and recreate many of the things Dalton had talked about during her tour.

Off in the distance, the ship's thrusters began to fire, and with a cloud of dust erupting from underneath, it took off. Once it had receded to the size of a gold bit, it shimmered and vanished. Luna hoped that they would visit again, only next time they should bring more things from their home planet.

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><p>It was almost a month after that fateful trip, and Dalton was still confused. He had begun to think that his engine had failed to work and instead knocked them unconscious as the jump back home had returned them to the exact time they had left, somehow. Ground control stated that they had never left, and after a few days, Dalton was inclined to believe them and write the whole thing off as one hell of a weird dream. But his subconscious had other plans. It kept niggling Dalton that he had seen Luna before, but he could never quite remember where. It was quite surprising that he couldn't remember where he had seen a talking navy blue alicorn before.<p>

On the forty second day after the 'failed' jump, he was listening to music before going to bed, and had set his computer to shuffle. He didn't often set his music to play on shuffle, but tonight he was bored. He had closed his eyes just as the current song ended. He hoped the next song wouldn't be something stupid that would ruin his relaxation.

_My Little Pony, My Little Pony_

Dalton's eyes shot open.

"**WHAT.**"


End file.
